Dr. Mike Office Hours

Want to know why I dumped 1,455 emails to help people 1-1 for free? Read on below to find out why.

Yep, I tried to get back to many of them for months and months and did not. I’ve struggled with this over the past decade actually. I am tossing in the towel now.

It is unscaleable, and I am only helping people 1 by 1. I am truly flattered that people want my help. I really am! And I don’t take that for granted. The hard part is that I could spend several hours a day just answering free emails, only to get more free emails.

The worst part was that it would extend my day and cut into the time I was spending with my wife, which is not fair to her.

Going forward, if I don’t know you, you are not on my email list and you are not a client of some form (Flex Diet Cert, HRV product, 1-1 online, Carrick course) then the odds of me getting back to your question are very slim.

If you send me a note that you need to interview me for your college project, the answer will be no. I did my last one 5 weeks ago. It is not sustainable, and it is not my job to do your homework for you.

Note- If you are professor assigning this type of homework, please stop. It is very little effort for the student, and it makes me look like the bad guy when I politely decline. Take a cue from Dr Andy Galpin and have students write about someone in the fitness industry by looking at the content and info the fitness professional has created. Don’t just badger them to answer some questions that took you, the student, all of 10 minutes to put together.

Please don’t read this and think that I am crawling in a cave and not talking to anyone. Far from it. Here is what I am doing in place.

Solution?

Conferences

If you find me at a conference or seminar, by all means please come up and say “hi.” I love in person interactions. I want to talk to you. Ask any questions you want, and I will answer them.

Anyone who has interacted with me in person can vouch for me here. I want to help you. You have paid to be there and are taking action – I love to see that. I dedicate those days to doing my talk and interacting with everyone there.

Paying Clients

Please note that the above is only for NON-paying clients and people I don’t know.

If you are a friend or paying client, I always love hearing from you. Nothing changes there. I am doing this to spend more time with the people that are important to me, not less.

Why?I stole the above time from Cal Newport so that this way I have a fixed amount of time built into my schedule per month.

If I get 40 emails a day and I can only get back to 20 of them that week, then only 20 people get a response.

The time portion is fixed, allocated and will NOT change based on demand. This is a fair way for me to figure out the balance of donating my time vs. spending all my time on things that don’t move the needle on a much bigger scale.

I will still be doing podcasts (Iron Radio weekly and as a guest on others), writing 5-6 times a week for my newsletter, articles, in-person presentations, etc.

I will NOT be doing any guest articles for new outlets. I don’t need any more marketing help since I have a wonderful team already. I don’t need SEO, or social media help nor do I want to peddle your new CBD product you swear that you did not make in your bathtub, you liar you.

Thank You!

Thank you for your understanding! I am flattered that I have to do something like this. I never dreamed it would happen. I’m honored that so many care about what I think on topics. I appreciate all the interest.
Sincerely,
Dr Mike